Workers Wake Up

Capitalism remains, for all the tinkering, a system of crisis. For more than a century the domination of the capitalist mode of production has posed before humanity the alternatives: Socialism or Barbarism. The crises arise out of the private ownership of the means of production and the private acquisi­tion of the goods produced by social labor for social consumption. Capitalism, while having developed the highest level of production, is a system of waste and inefficiency, through useless com­petition and the alienation of men and women. Socialists seek to change the economic laws governing society and human relations, by bringing order and plan into production. Once collectively in control of the means whereby we live via common ownership, we will develop more efficient means. Common ownership eliminates the crisis in society by removing all the areas of class conflict, since we would all be owners of the productive forces of the community. The only definitive solution to these problems is the elimination of capitalism and its institutions, and the establishment of common ownership of the means of production, rational economic and social planning. The fundamental task of The Socialist Party is the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of socialism. Capitalism has developed as a world economic system. It is illusory to believe that the much higher development of the productive forces that socialism entails can be achieved within the framework of a single country. The division of the world into different states imposes a definite form on the revolutionary process. The proletariat must and can take power and begin to build socialism in the territories defined by different existing states. But the construction of socialism can be completed only on a world scale.

People live in a society racked with crisis. This society can neither guarantee them a secure future nor even promise there will be a future. The threat of environmental destruction or nuclear war casts a shadow over the lives of all of us . It is our generation that must end capitalism because future generations may not be around to do it. This society places a premium on wealth, not ability or dedication. The vast majority of our people work out their lives for the enrichment of the small minority of profiteers who own the bulk of the economy and through their wealth control the entire society. Our world staggers from one crisis to another, increasing chronic unemployment—particularly among youth, a vicious and unending drive against the rights of labour, and a budget in which one-third of the funds are marked for weapons of mass murder—all these are hallmarks of the "system" we live under. The system is capitalism. Under it a small minority rule in fact if not in name, and profit is the be-all and end-all of economic life; human needs come second—if at all. We live in a society which puts a price tag on everything. Even poets, writers and artists find the road to "success" demands that they shape their art to the whims of the wealthy and privileged.

Man is divided along class lines determined by his relations to the means of production—there are those who own means of production—capital—and those who only possess the ability to work at the means of production owned by others. Between these two forces there is a conflict over the division of the fruits of labor. This struggle is the class struggle. The class struggle is a fact. If it were not so there would be no need for trade unions. And if it were not so, there would be no basis for a socialist party. The Socialist Party holds out the possibility of a new society of production for use, not for profit. Freed from the clutches of the profit-gougers and their hangers-on, the major industries must be brought under common ownership and the economy must be planned by the people themselves in their own areas of work. The profit system cannot make use of automation for the benefit of society; socialism will! The future society that will be constructed under socialism will reduce work to an insignificant part of daily life and offer the individual the fullest possibilities to pursue his or her own abilities and interests. Our heritage is rich let everybody have the opportunity to freely access it. Despite the relative passivity and docility of the working people, it is clear that their very life situation forces them to come repeatedly into conflict with the system. They find themselves in daily conflict with the employers in the struggle for decent wages and security.

People are increasingly disillusioned and many seek new paths, new roads forward. They search for social change.  The world can be changed. For the sake of humanity it must be changed. Around the world humanity is saying "Enough" and is beginning to move. Though our lives and conditions be different; though we live in different parts of the world; though our struggles take different forms; ours is a common goal—an end to the oppression and exploitation of man by man. How can our planet be changed? Certainly no elite will serve the task. We do not want to replace one group of masters with another. Nor do we want the patronising assistance of those whose real interests lie with the present system. We must look to those whose interests lie in change—to working people, the people who work in the factories and offices of our society. They built the society—and they too are cut off from power and progress by the tiny minority that owns the wealth in Canada. The bosses need the working people—but the workers don’t need the bosses. For most people democracy remains a word without meaning. We are cut off from the ability to make decisions affecting our own lives. The giant corporations and the capitalist magnates determine all the key questions. Only when we have economic democracy, when production is planned for use and not for profit, when the right of all to share in the abundance of our country is established - only then will democracy be truly established.

When we say that we are revolutionary socialists we are not talking about a change in society that would take place when a small group takes over the local city council office and runs up the red flag. We are talking about a change that will involve the vast majority of people consciously acting to change the entire society and all the relationships in it, from the way people relate to each other, to the way that the government operates to the way people relate to their jobs. We're out to change the whole system. We see that all the problems we face are intimately tied to the problems throughout the whole country, the continent, the world. And therefore if we are serious about changing the system, about changing the world, it is necessary to confront the whole system. To be effective you have to build an organisation capable of doing that.

As socialists we believe in the great task of transforming this society—of building a new world. We stand for a world which can eliminate poverty and hunger and war; a world in which freedom is more than a word in a textbook; a world in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the producers themselves and the products of mankind are available to all. The potential of mankind virtually limitless, if it is freed from economic and social oppression. We stand for socialism. We have no illusions that the way will be easy, no visions of quick success. But the future belongs to humanity and socialism!